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What about the alien puppet masters?
I blame the parents.
I thought that was covered under Pope John Paul II.
I’m a little unclear what it means for the Catholic Church to be scapegoating people rather than blaming itself if the latter doesn’t include blaming JPII, who obviously was responsible for many of the structural failures on this issue that led to victims not seeing justice done.
Brandon, I think the idea is to deflect blame from the current leadership.
There is certainly plenty of that.
It’s also clearly irrational to call ‘scapegoating’ something that involves saying that someone who was really reasponsible was responsible, even if if there are people trying to use that fact to deflect blame from themselves.
One thing institutions do to deflect blame often is to blame those in the past (“Look how we are so much better than our predecessors”); if the current guy (who was the mover and shaker for these matters during JPII’s reign of conservative terror) can shift the blame, he gets to convince the faithful that he is worthy for a while longer.
Make no mistake – this is as bad as the sale of indulgences that triggered off the reformation. I suspect that the Catholic Church will schism over this.
John S. Wilkins wrote:
I have my doubts about that one. Benedict XVI is 83 years old, so even if he’s completely tarred by the whole thing, and to the point where even the faithful are shaken, his papacy won’t be all that long.
The real damage to the Church will be in those leaving it. That seems to be what’s happening in Ireland, where the faithful have had their faith shaken, and where the Church’s ancient position in Irish society has probably received a mortal blow.
I cannot see a schism occurring. There’s no doctrinal differences. The Pope may end up looking bad, but his reign will be short, and, providing the Catholic leadership isn’t completely occupied by those who sought to sweep the child molestation issue under the rug, they’ll get somebody else.
What I’m suspecting will happen is the conservatives in the College of Cardinals, who made darned good and sure that JPII’s pitbull got the job, will be seriously undermined. The chance for a more liberal, or at least (and I know this will sound weird seeing as the Pope is a religious leader) a less dogmatic Pope will be chosen. I rather view the years of JPII and Benedict XVI as being a period of reinvigorated conservatism after the substantial changes to the Church during the 1960s and 1970s.
As much as I’d love to steal credit, I was just publicising the excellent work of Dave The Happy Singer.
One of those things I wish I’d thought of. Dave and I seem to be doing that a bit recently…
Yeah, but I saw it on your Twitter feed.
I thought that was the case!
One wonders how they hope for redemption of their sins if they don’t, at least, accept that they’ve done wrong.
No forgiveness without acknowledging your sins and atoning for them. Isn’t that, officially, the RC way?
I don’t think that they’re aren’t being very good catholics.
Perhaps they should forgo the politics and self regard and reread the catechism.
I don’t think that they’re aren’t being very good catholics
That should, of course, have read:
I don’t think that they’re being very good catholics
Great site! Here’s another one to add to the list: liberal and secular society:
Yup. It’s all those damn secular people who don’t go to church that caused this problem!
Oh, and my inner Beavis and Butthead can’t avoid snickering at the term “penal approaches” used in this context…
And, you know what? In the Mexican news nothing was mentioned about Arizmendi’s comments about omnipresent eroticism and paedophilia cases, but instead they focused on the criticisms he made to the public education textbooks’ approach on sex education. Self-censorship, anyone?
I tried posting this before, but I guess there was a screw-up…. Let me try again… [Sorry, overzealous spam trap — JSW]
And here’s a few more. The Catholic League is a gold mine for the blame game. Donohue seems bound and determined to throw as much shit at this problem as he can and hope some of it sticks.
The News Media.
Teachers’ Unions:
Victims’ families; Local Authorities; Liberal Bishops:
Thanks Wes, and everyone for your encouraging comments.
These are queued up for the next few days, with a couple you guys haven’t guessed yet!
Stay Happy!
Cuttlefish has the answer. My only cavil is that he only mentions boy victims here.
Who Is To Blame (For Catholic Scandal)?
There is far, far too much scandal
At the Vatican these days
Since it cannot be the Church’s fault
Let’s try to blame the gays!
With their sinful choice of lifestyle
And their flaunting of God’s creed,
If we have to point the finger
They’re a likely cause indeed!
There is much too much at stake here—
Far too much that we could lose—
So to keep our asses covered
We should also blame the Jews!
They have constantly conspired to
Bring a downfall to the Church:
If you want to find a smoking gun,
The Jews are who to search!
There is blame enough to go around
(As if you couldn’t tell),
I think it prudent we should blame
The atheists as well!
They have no moral compass
But they want to write the laws—
A secular society
Must clearly be the cause!
It’s hardly worth our mention,
Yet another group to name,
But you cannot help but notice
There’s the media to blame!
The reporters keep on digging,
Though they’re covered up in dirt—
Such a filthy occupation;
Think of all the priests they’ve hurt!
There’s one more group deserving blame;
They’re making lots of noise,
And claiming to be victims, too—
I mean, of course, the boys!
Their baseless accusations are
But acts of desperation;
They, too, should shoulder guilt
For leading priests into temptation!
So many guilty parties,
Waging war against the Pope—
One fact alone sustains us
And allows us still to hope:
One group alone is blameless—
There is nothing to discuss—
No matter where we’re finding fault
It won’t be found in us!
Source? I love it, by the way…
Comes from here.
Gracias. Much fun to be had there… hadn’t run across him before.
This cuttlefish is a master of the art. The style has a pleasant 19th-century ring to it — that being surely the golden age of humorous poetry in English.
He published a book last year too – sorry don’t know how to insert hyperlinks
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-digital-cuttlefish-vol-1/3908571
lo and behold, it came out as a hyperlink anyway.
The wonders of WordPress!
It won’t be long before His Holiness starts blaming the fallible.
Well, he wouldn’t be wrong about that…
John S. Wilkins Philosophy, Bond University Sent from my iPhone
The media have tracked down a couple of pedophile priests in India who fled the US to return to their home diocese. Apart from that is the sordid case of the late Sr.Abhaya, who was found dead at her convent in strange circumstances. The cops, prosecutors, and even a Judge of the Supreme Court of India have been allegedly working behind the scenes to cover up this case. It is over 16 years since Sr.Abhaya’s death and the case is yet to be closed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Abhaya
Given all this brouhaha I am surprised the Vatican hasn’t blamed India’s three Cs – Caste, Cows, Curry for the corruption that has crept into the Church